German Patent 3,901,549 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,922,970 (Gehring et al.) discloses a gripper arrangement for a loom that has weft thread insertion carrier members, such as gripper rods or rapiers, which are alternately inserted into and retracted out of the loom shed, and has gripper members attached to the free ends of the carrier members. A guide element is arranged on a side wall of the gripper, so that the gripper glides along the reed with the guide element. Such a guide element is tiltably arranged on the side wall of the gripper so as to be tiltable in a direction perpendicular to the weft thread insertion direction. With that arrangement, the guide element can advantageously orient or align itself along the still-standing weaving reed during the control phase of the gripper, so that the largest possible lateral gliding surface of the gripper, i.e. of the guide element, is in contact with the reed. This achieves a quiet and smooth gripper motion. The entire disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,922,970 (Gehring et al.) is incorporated herein by reference.
However, it has been found that the above described type of guide element does not reliably prevent the gripper from deviating from its prescribed guided path while carrying out the weft thread insertion, for example in a loom in which the grippers are arranged at the ends of rigid or flexible carrier members, such as gripper rods or rapiers, and in which the grippers are loosely or non-positively guided, for example, on a sley sole arranged on a reed stay bar of the loom. Especially in high speed looms, such a deviation of the gripper from its prescribed guided path is represented by the gripper lifting-off from the sley sole.